“Watchmen – DC Compact Comics Edition“
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist / Letterer: Dave Gibbons
Color Artist: John Higgins
Reviewed by Steve J. Ray
Summary
The Watchmen – DC Compact Comics Edition gathers all twelve issues/chapters of the classic comic series/graphic novel, making them available in one small, affordable, and easy-to-manage volume.
Let me state, right from the start… I’m a Watchmen fanatic. I was fortunate enough to be around when the original twelve issues were released, and I still have them. Back then collected editions/graphic novels were still quite rare, so reading comics episodically was the only way.
This story has, deservedly, become legendary, so you can imagine that reading it month by month must’ve been torture. The fact that it took 14 months for all 12 issues to come out (over 1986 and 1987) only added to that pain, and meant that I read, and re-read, my single issues multiple times. You can safely say that they’re far from being in mint condition.
In 1987 DC published a trade paperback collection which, compared to the lovely new Compact Comics edition, was a big, thick, and some would say imposing, book. I’ve read this collection at least once a year since it came out… so you can safely say that it’s far from being in mint condition.
Do you see a pattern emerging?
Positives
In 2005, Watchmen‘s color artist, John Higgins, recolored the story for the first Absolute Edition of the book. At first, I wondered why, as I was so in love with everything about the original version. However, seeing the new colors in the new Compact Comics Edition, printed on great quality paper, has more than sold me on them. Higgins hasn’t only made the book look better, he’s corrected some errors he felt he’d made in the original releases.
Yes, this new volume may come with a low price tag, but it sure doesn’t skimp on quality. The paper stock is thick and feels like a classic 80s comic as you turn the pages. The art is clear, the colors crisp, and the binding extremely strong… oh, and the size means that it’s far easier to handle, carry, and read, and it looks far less imposing than its predecessors.
Oh, and what a read it is.
While I’m still not best pleased with DC’s treatment of Alan Moore, it would be a crime to deprive modern audiences of this masterpiece. With this book, you don’t need anything else. Yes, there have been prequels, sequels, a movie, and a TV show (with a two-part animated release coming soon), but this is a true novel that totally stands alone. It’s also one of the greatest novels, graphic or otherwise, that’s ever been published. Don’t just take my word for it, just check Time Magazine’s list of the top 100 novels of all time.
If you’ve never read it before… you need this book. If you’ve got one of the big, chunky editions… you need this book.
Here’s the official synopsis:
ABOUTÂ WATCHMEN: DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION
Graphic novels to read anywhere: DC Compact Comics collect DC’s bestselling, most iconic stories in a new size!
The story’s set in an alternate 1985 where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history. The US won the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect!
Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, Watchmen begins as a murder mystery but soon unfolds into a planet-altering conspiracy.
A group of reunited heroes, Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan, and Ozymandias, must test the limits of their convictions and ask themselves where the line between good and evil truly lies.
Collects Watchmen #1-12, the complete story. “
That’s both an accurate, yet completely inadequate description.
Even after almost 40 years since its first publication, Watchmen remains one of the finest writer/artist/colorist collaborations in the history of comics. The seamless blending of past and present, the genius page/panel transitions, and the clever/bonkers insertion of a pirate comic, which both tells its own story and also mirrors what’s happening in the “real world”, all go to make up one the richest, most layered and textured reading experiences ever.
Then we have Dave Gibbons’ repeated, yet extremely subtle use of the “smiley face”, which is sublime. It’s not just the cover of Chapter One that features it… Oh, no. Take a closer look at the front cover/splash pages for Chapters Seven and Ten, for example. After that’s blown your mind, search for all the close-up shots of this Earth’s electric car charging ports; the one on page six of chapter twelve’s a doozy… and there are more where that one came from.
Then we get subtle things like planned spelling mistakes and typos in the text portions at the end of Chapter Six (as it was hand-written/typed on an old type-writer). Or, my personal favorite, the fact that the children’s shelter Walter Kovas was put into was the Charlton Home… genius. (The characters in Watchmen were originally supposed to be the classic Charlton Comics heroes, but DC had other plans for them, meaning that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had to create a whole new pantheon of legends to replace them).
Don’t, however, think that you need a magnifying glass and have to seek out clues and Easter Eggs to enjoy this book… wait until you’ve read it 10 or 12 times before you start doing that. Read it because of the story, the characters, and the terrifying alternate planet Earth that exists solely because of the fact that Superheroes are real here.
I’ve read Watchmen close to 40 times, and I get something from it with every re-read. So, forget the adolescent, ultra-violent, over-sexualized nonsense of The Boys. Watchmen, New Statesmen, and Marshal Law did true “grown-up” comics first… and did it way better (just my opinion).
In Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, the hero walked away from humanity only to come when needed. In V For Vendetta the everyman rose up against the powers that be to reclaim their nation. In Miracleman, the super-beings took over the world. What happens in Watchmen could be the most terrifying, yet realistic, result of what superheroes would actually do to “save the world” out of all of them.
You get all of this, and so much more in this sublime Watchmen – DC Compact Comics Edition.
Negatives
I now want the whole collection… although, is that really a bad thing? Look out for my review of Batman: The Court Of Owls Saga – DC Comics Compact Edition, coming soon on our sister site, Dark Knight News.
Verdict
Now, I’ve already rambled on for over a thousand words, and the last thing I want to do is bore anyone, particularly when just three will tell you everything you really need to know:
Buy This Book.
That’s it.
Paperback – $9.99
Available now – ISBN 9781779527325
Review Copy Courtesy of Penguin Random House. Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment
